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Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan told the Nihon Keizai Shimbun in a new interview that the company is considering the merger and acquisition of game development companies. According to Ryan, with companies such as Google entering the games industry, “content is becoming...

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Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan told the Nihon Keizai Shimbun in a new interview that the company is considering the merger and acquisition of game development companies.

According to Ryan, with companies such as Google entering the games industry, “content is becoming more important than ever before.”

“Companies new to the games industry looking at the market with hope is something we definitely welcome,” Ryan said. He emphasized, “Sony Interactive Entertainment has 25 years of experience in the games industry and has big assets.”

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Personally, I'd buy Insomniac, Bluepoint Games, Ready at Dawn (these guys can do DC2 and 1887), just hire Rushy and some of the guys who were dismissed from Codemasters to RAD…..would bolster the studio, I'd probably hire Stig to lead them...….@-MD-, Jaffe would be perfect too, only if he could handle it.....

I would not do that, Jaffe is in his own place now......Not sure he has the energy for this, he said GOW 1 almost completely destroyed him.....He's a highly emotional and passionate guy, I guess that takes it's toll..

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With the relationship they have had over the years I would be shocked if the offer has not been made in the past. I remember seeing a few interviews with Ted Price where he says he enjoys the freedom to do what they want how they want.

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With the relationship they have had over the years I would be shocked if the offer has not been made in the past. I remember seeing a few interviews with Ted Price where he says he enjoys the freedom to do what they want how they want.

True enough, though it does strike me as odd that with him saying that, 19 of their 23 non-mobile/non-VR games are Playstation exclusives, and they only started looking at other systems in in 2013, plus there's only really one "big" one that isn't on Playstation (Sunset). But yeah, for sure, it still makes sense to keep your options open even when you've been a Playstation studio for 17 years.

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True enough, though it does strike me as odd that with him saying that, 19 of their 23 non-mobile/non-VR games are Playstation exclusives, and they only started looking at other systems in in 2013, plus there's only really one "big" one that isn't on Playstation (Sunset). But yeah, for sure, it still makes sense to keep your options open even when you've been a Playstation studio for 17 years.

I assume they get a premium from Sony for the games they make seeing how good the quality has been and they still have the freedom to try and develop their own IP's. Seems like the best of both worlds.

Just think of how much more money they would have made has they owned the Ratchet and Spyro IP's.

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They only really started doing it because they were so behind this last generation and needed some good will. There's actually significantly more games that are only on PS4/PS3 and PC than there are games that are only on 360/X1 and PC, even if they're third party studios. Also, Nintendo.

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If Sony starts gobbling up talented studios, Microsoft may double down. At some point someone is going to hit the IP content "win" button and buy something massive like EA. This should get interesting. Begun, the Dev Wars have...

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SEGA/Atlus, SNK, KOEI Tecmo, both Kojima and Konami, M2 (maybee Level 5 and From Software) for the japanese studios that would add great talents and different genres to their portfolio. They are not that big and it would hurt Microsoft and Nintendo in a very big way, in the very short and long term. I would give the same advise to Microsoft and mostly the same to Nintendo.

CD projekt red is the studio they should fight for but i guess it's too big... for the good of every gamers
The same goes for Take2.

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No one has mentioned Google gobbling up studios...if the future is a Netflix model, and the hardware is secondary to the streaming service you choose, in house development is going to be a deciding factor and Google is going to gobble up studios.

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Imagine if Sony or Xbox bought some giant of the industry like Take-Two, EA or Activision and made them their multiplatform headquarters. Maintaining the iconic IPs but getting rid of the mtx bullshit altogether. It is not realistic, but a man can dream. It would be a great PR move too.

I highly doubt they would go THIS BIG looking for acquisitions but I think they will look into buying some studios that worked previously with them and have a good relationship. Probably some already mentioned studious like Ready at Dawn, Bluepoint. Nothing too crazy. But I would love to be surprised by the big shots buying the sharks of the industry just to "appeal" to the gaming community and put a hold on some aggressive business practices lately shown.

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I can understand you. The freedom Sony WWS gives to their best studios is something you don't see anywhere.

We never know what will happen.

Developers always love to say and believe that it is best to be indepedent, but in the end to pursue the game of their dreams they need money or simply to stay alive. Insomniac could be acquired too even if not by Sony. Ninja Theory was one who said it would be free and we know what happened in the end.

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I can understand you. The freedom Sony WWS gives to their best studios is something you don't see anywhere.

We never know what will happen.

Developers always love to say and believe that it is best to be indepedent, but in the end to pursue the game of their dreams they need money or simply to stay alive. Insomniac could be acquired too even if not by Sony. Ninja Theory was one who said it would be free and we know what happened in the end.

I don't remember right, but Sucker Punch vanished for 4 years or so. I thought it could mean something bad happened. Then they show us that Ghost of Tsushima trailer and gameplay. It's good to see that they had a better chance to show what they can achieve with enough development time to their games. Infamous: Second Son was a step down gameplay wise to Infamous 2.

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I don't remember right, but Sucker Punch vanished for 4 years or so. I thought it could mean something bad happened. Then they show us that Ghost of Tsushima trailer and gameplay. It's good to see that they had a better chance to show what they can achieve with enough development time to their games. Infamous: Second Son was a step down gameplay wise to Infamous 2.

Second Son was good for the launch period of PS4 and had great reception and reviews. But I agree with you Infamous 2 was better, felt more complete.

Since the game came in march 2014, we had the first info SP was working in a new ip late 2015 and the game was finally announced on 2017. The studio is not as big as Guerrilla, so it is understandable they would need more time to launch a big new game and ip. We know they can do great on gameplay (as Infamous 2) and we know they already have great tech and art direction for graphics (Second Son). I hope Ghost is a culmination of all the things they learnt along the years.

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If Sony starts gobbling up talented studios, Microsoft may double down. At some point, someone is going to hit the IP content "win" button and buy something massive like EA. This should get interesting. Begun, the Dev Wars have...

Imagine here we fighting about acquisitions from Xbox and Playstation but 10 to 15 years in the future they announce something like a united front or platform (Crossplay will happen much earlier like in 2 to 3 years from now if things go smoothly). Crazy don't you think? I just want to see Take-Two, EA and Activision start to get in the bandwagon and be all buddy buddy for their own sake haha (delusions from myself).

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The closing of studios this gen and Layden’s comments about not wanting or needing any more studios 18 months ago...stupidity and arrogance.

Now that they see the error, it is a sellers market, so everything is going to be at a premium; and keeping talent expensive. People laugh at Microsoft, but they have gamepass and the money to loss lead with that for years if they need to. 14 studios now, with all of those games being ‘free’ day one on gamepass, and the potential for that studio number to keep growing...well, once those studios start releasing content in 14 months, it is going to be verrrry compelling vs Sony’s current offering of $60 games and having to pay $60 for online.

And isnt every ps+ member jealous of that $1/month for up to 36 months ultimate upgrade? If you could have added psnow for $1 per month, and if sony started putting all games day one there? If there is something like that during launch period from one of the platform holders...well many many people are going to look at that when deciding on which platform to buy.

Sony doesn't have the right kind of studios and content for that though. Their big studios need that $60 price tag because they make expensive games, and none of their studios make long tail games except for the GT Sport guys.

So yeah, they need to adjust their strategy if they want to be competitive with 2020 xbox.

Konami has some interesting IPs dormant like Castlevania, Silent Hill, but Metal Gear is still fresh, I would wait some years to do anything with it but I don't think anyone right now can handle it unless was Kojima behind it or supervising it.

Ubisoft wouldn't be willing to be bought right now. They have Tom Clancy (Splinter Cell, The Division, Rainbow Six), Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs, For Honour, Rayman and many others under their hood. Together with the Unity engine. I think is more lucrative to them being independent.

Square Enix is the same thing as Ubisoft. They are too big and are not in any need for being bought by anyone. But between then and Ubisoft. I think Sony would have a better chance of buying Square.